Bugs I've brought in the house on my firewood...

[Nissan_Ranger]

Any bites are bad, and I feel for ya, but I am very sceptical of a brown recluse in Ontario Canada. Some other species yes, but not a brown recluse.

Google is your friend:
Distribution

The Brown Recluse Spider is native to the United States of America, Mexico and Canada. In the USA, their range extends from the southern Midwest down the the Gulf of Mexico. To get more specific, the Brown Recluse Spider has been seen from southeastern Nebraska through southern Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana to southwestern Ohio. Moving south, their range also extends from western Georgia to the central parts of Texas. They are rarely ever seen west of the Rockies, and if they are here, they have been transported.
In Mexico, the Brown Recluse Spider tends to hang around the border, and does not extend too far south into the country. As for Canada, this spider stays around southeast Ontario, and in the southern parts of Quebec.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Anything that looks remotely buggy goes in the stove as soon as it comes inside.

 

[madison]

Still doubt it:
1. see page 151 - 152 Journal of Arachnology:
http://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA_free/JoA_v36_n1/arac-36-1-150.pdf

2. Map: http://spiders.ucr.edu/images/colorloxmap.gif

3. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0041010109002414

4. Brown recluse spiders blamed for more wounds than they inflict, study suggests: http://www.clemson.edu/media-relati...rticles/2007/september/brownreclusestudy.php5

 

[eujamfh]

I out about two weeks worth in the unheated garage. We definitely get spiders brought in. The ones I see get squashed…or loaded into the fire. I am sure others are in the cart (about a days worth in the cart, two carts one for each stove) but they tend to hand in the wood until we disturb then when loading the stove. We have th house treated inside and out four times a year so even if there are bugs in the wood that are brought in, if they leave the wood cart, they are certain to step on treated areas which means they die anyways.

Our wood is dry so termites are not a problem. Its usually spiders, which are not welcome, but at least they can not hurt the house. Just make the kids scream every once in a while. This far no moths or ant problems at all.

 

[NextEndeavor]

I had a few weird bugs my first year with marginally wet wood. Some a them critters always went to the kitchen, suppose for food/drink. This year wood is very dry and what we're burning has all been shedded for several months after baking outside till done. Not seen any bugs or spiders........yet.

 

[firefighterjake]

No bugs . . . I guess they've found new homes after three years.

 

[Huntindog1]

I wonder if a light coating of bug spray would hurt as some bug sprays claim they last for 3 to 6 months. If your wood stacks tops are covered keeping alot of the rain off the wood I think these type bug killers would be effective for the 3 to 6 month time frame they advertise.

If you really serious about cutting down on the amount of bugs you could fill you pump sprayer and coat the tops of each row in your stacks with a light coating before adding another layer.

Bugs move around and over a 3 to 6 month period would most likely come in contact with some of the bug spray.

I think todays newer type bug sprays are much safer than yester years old varieties.

 

[velvetfoot]

Knock on wood, I don't know about stink bugs....yet.

 

[SteveKG]

I have a mystery bug that has infested my piles over the last few years. I can't identify it but they like to live in cracks and under bark. They are insects, coarse white and black diamondy pattern, don't fly, but crawl around in the house up on the walls, about double the size of a smallish grain of rice and 3/8" long. Antennaes, look sort of like a miniature cockroach. Stand up on their legs with body off the ground.

Any ideas?

Any possibility of a decent photo? Should be fairly simple to identify with a picture.

I have had various beetles wake up and come out of firewood during the winter. Only really bad experience was some ticks that could only have come from firewood. They showed up on my dogs in late December one year. We have lots of ticks here, but they generally are active from the warming time in spring [late March or April] and gone away by July. I had never seen this species of tick, and never have again since, and neither had my veterinarian. But I made sure to burn all the wood I had stacked inside, then cleaned the area. Never had them again. So far.

 

[Fod01]

I am restoring a car in the garage, so didn't want to take up room with the wood ring. I put the ring in the basement and filled it. Just before Christmas we had a half dozen big flies make their way upstairs. Needless to say, my son and I took turns throwing splits up through the bilco doors. I made room in the garage, and now only bring in to the house what I need immediately.

gabe

 

[Highbeam]

Any possibility of a decent photo? Should be fairly simple to identify with a picture.

I'll try to get one. They're small of course but I should be able to get something. They don't seem to live in the house so they either die or seek somewhere else to live. Maybe they just hid really good or bore into my home's structure!

We only bring in wood to burn. Storing firewood fuel indoors seems crazy.

 

[TradEddie]

While it may not have been a brown recluse, after I saw a spider with a fiddle-shaped mark on its back, I try wear gloves any time I'm getting wood, especially when it is covered. Wood in open stacks doesn't seem to be as bad, but I get occasional ants, lots of powder post beetles, some other large brown beetle, and usually a mouse nest or two.
The coolest thing I found in wood was cicada larvae when I split some punky poplar to help it rot. Hickory horned devils are pretty impressive too, but thankfully for my wife's sanity, they stay outside. Sadly the last of my mature hickory trees is gone now, so I probably won't see those monsters for a while.

TE

 

[Paulywalnut]

I get an occasional "wooly bear caterpillar" I put them back in another stack.
Had a pray mantis egg sac on a piece of wood. I put that in an aquarium
in the shed until it hatched a couple hundred little ones.

 

[Bub381]

Tiny spiders that jump,1 hornet and i think the pantry moths came from the bird food.

 

[Mrs. Krabappel]

just the fact that we need to carry in wood means it gets too cold to grow the bugs I don't want in my house. Life in tropical climes definitely has downsides.

 

[jdp1152]

Man they are bad this year. I didn't have any last year and thought that having the house wrapped with new siding did the job, but apparently last year was just an off year cause they are back full force this year. I don't think the temp swings are helping either.

Hell yeah they were. Suckers were infiltrating my house something fierce. Heck, I was in my office last Friday and kept hearing this weird noise. It was a stink bug between the curtain and the window. I'm going to be wrapping the house this spring and residing as well. I put h ardwire mesh around the sill this spring to exclude mice, but will follow that up with some caulk and the aforementioned tyvek wrap. See if I can't keep some of those buggers out and keep more warm air in. Also play on insulating the interior of the sill with AirKrete cementous foam insulation. Supposed to be really good for being inhospitable for critters.

As to the original poster...very surprised to hear of a brown recluse in Ontario. Didn't realize they had that range. Older brother got bit by one in his armpit down in Georgia and had to have skin grafts for nearly two years. Insanely grotesque looking bite wound. Guess he picked up a shirt off his dirty clothes pile and put it on and it was nestled up in there.

 

[jdp1152]

Knock on wood, I don't know about stink bugs....yet.

I had to google what kind of bug it was. This year was the first time I really have seen them out in force.

As for wood, I've seen some dormant/dead ants, but never had any issue. To date though, I haven't brought in much wood. Usually just walk outside and grab some small splits to get the fire going, then grab and arm load of bigger ones for the rest of the night. I do plan on bringing in a few days worth in the future, but I'm not terribly concerned about any bugs.

 

[Ashful]

Map: http://spiders.ucr.edu/images/colorloxmap.gif

I'm pretty sure we had a brown recluse in a deep window sill this summer. It had built a nice little nest down low in this window, between the storm and inner sash, in a window that sits very low on our first floor. Hidden by bushes on the outside, and our kitchen counter on the inside, but we could peer down and watch him all day long... once we realized he was there. Not being an entomologist, I guess I can't say with authority, but we had plenty of time to stare at this guy, and he matched all the photos and sizing information I brought up on the computer. Point being, we're outside the zone shown in madison's map.

Come to think of it... I wonder where he went?

 

[tim1]

I have an old house so I use spider traps everywhere. I know there are termites in the wood as I see them when splitting, but they do not eat that much, so they can eat till they go in the stove. In my enclosed shed that holds 5 cord, I set off 2 bug bombs when filled, just to get the process of storing started. I think more bugs come in on our clothes here in the country than anything else. Tim

 

[The Beagler]

Brown recluses generally like to be inside rather than outside. Sheds, barns, basements, attics...they like to be in dark places. I always make a habit of shaking my boots or shoes that I don't wear too often. I've personally never seen one or had any in my house (that I am aware of). I keep the wood that I am burning outside on my covered front porch. Occasionally, I'll find a sleeping yellowjacket or spider eggs. They just get tossed in the fire. Black widows also like to "hang out" around dwellings. It's a jungle out there! lol!

 

[begreen]

Apparently had one hornet or wasp; must've been a queen as the mrs said it was quite big. Probably a queen hibernating for the winter

That sounds like what we have too. It looks like this.

They are about 7/8" long. According to Wikipedia they were accidentally introduced in America in the 19th century. Odd though, they say they don't exist in Western North America and we sure seem to have them. Maybe they rode in on a freight shipment? I am going to save the next one I catch and examine it closely.

" The true hornets make up the genus Vespa and are distinguished from other vespines by the width of the vertex (part of the head behind the eyes), which is proportionally larger in Vespa and by the anteriorly rounded gasters (the section of the abdomen behind the wasp waist). The best known species is the European hornet (Vespa crabro), about 2-3 cm in length, widely distributed throughout Europe, Russia, and Northeast Asia."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornet

What you don't want to find is one of these, aka the Yak Killer hornet.

 

[bag of hammers]

What you don't want to find is one of these, aka the Yak Killer hornet.

Reading the wiki page now - good gawd that thing is scary...

 

[Ashful]

We had two giant European hornets in our house the first week of June. Scared the crap out of us. Think Zebra-striped mouse with wings and a stinger. Thankfully, they're fairly docile. Came in with an antique Persian rug, I think, not the firewood.

 

[Paulywalnut]

The big cicada killers that fly around real low in the yard are also pretty docile.
They are very agressive to the poor cicada though. Everybodys gotta eat!

 

[Mrs. Krabappel]

We had European hornets girdling some lilacs. Though loud, they had not been aggressive, so we thought them docile. I needed one for my entomology collection, so my friend nabbed it and it really nailed him.